Any Friends fan worth their salt will tell you that it’s a cliché to introduce an article or a speech using a dictionary definition. However, there is no denying that words have power – which is a topic that’s very close to our hearts on International Day of the Girl.

Somewhat confusingly, though, Merriam-Webster has a number of different definitions for ‘power’. It’s the “ability to act or produce an effect”, and “the possession of control, authority, or influence over others”, and a force of “physical might”.

It is also, in its most archaic sense, a “force of armed men”.

The year is 2018, though, and the world is now a very different place. Indeed, we believe that the word ‘power’ could and should belong to everyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, religion or gender – something which we made very clear in our Made By Girls takeover, when we asked a group of brilliant young women to take over stylist.co.uk.

With this in mind, we asked our team of girls what the word ‘power’ means to them – and how it makes them feel when they hear it. And their answers were incredibly insightful…

Made By Girls: what does the word ‘power’ really mean to girls in 2018?